From Hate to Love
by BrookeLong
Summary: Sakura hates Angelic Layer, but then she gets offered to try out a new male model angel. Her family forced her to do it, but no one knows the reason why Sakura hates AL layer so much. Could it have been the accident?
1. The Offer

**Chapter One: The Offer**

A large TV near the train station flickered on. An announcer with a theatrical voice began to announce the start of some kind of tournament. Simultaneously a train pulled into the station as a long bell rang out. The doors of the white train opened and people piled out. As they exited most eyes got caught by the humongous TV. Soon a crowd formed-all of them staring at the two little people fighting on a bright white layer.

Everyone who was on the train stopped to watch the fight between the two angels. Most of them had seen the fight before, it had taken place a year ago, but they still became entranced by the colors and the feeling that came when watching the game. Unnoticed by anyone a girl around fourteen with dark purple hair scowled. She flung her school bag over her shoulder, turned on her heel, and left the crowd.

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Sakura Ohkawa looked out the tinted glass of the train window. From memory she could easily tell that they were almost to the train station. Sakura stashed away her book in her bag and placed the bag on her lap. The scenery abruptly changed into city. The train then slowed and screeched to a stop, a few passengers groaning at the loud drilling noise. Sakura could hear a muffled ring from outside, and then the doors automatically flew open.

As all the people around her stood up, so did she. Sakura was glad for the small roof over her head. The sun was blinding, the light sneaking through the open wall leading to the outside. Even with the light blinding her, Sakura was really glad it was sunny. The past couple days had been unusually rainy. She had gotten stuck at her friend's house because the rain was coming down so hard that she couldn't walk home. The small patch of land near the entrance of the station was filled with sparkling wet grass, but the dull mud ruined the whole scene.

Finally in the sun Sakura stretched, her muscles sore fro being cramped in the tiny train seat. As she started to walk home she found a large group of people watching that huge TV Sakura always found as interesting. It was constantly playing news or funny commercials. It broadcasted sports tournaments along with other things. Before she could see what was playing a huge wave of people forced her to the center of the crowd. Sakura squeezed out of the two people she was stuck between. She to stand on her tiptoes in order to see the screen because a tall man was blocking her view. Having to move over to the side a bit she finally got a glimpse of what was on.

When she saw what was on the screen she couldn't help but frown. It was that _stupid_ Angelic Layer again. Sakura couldn't stand to watch anymore. She had hated Angelic Layer for a long time now, for reasons she never told anyone. Her family had guessed the reason a while back, but they never spoke a word. Sakura couldn't even stand to think about Angelic Layer, it just caused pain. Fed up with it she slung her bag over her right shoulder, turned around, and left the suffocating crowd of people.

When she got out she almost broke into a run, but she knew she would just draw attention to herself. Instead she walked as fast as she could until she was far away from the large crowd of people and the Angelic Layer fight. Her leg muscles hurting forced her to slow down, her calves burning. Turning on to another street she saw a white booth with a man in front of it, asking questions to the crowd in front of him.

"Next question listen closely. A man hung himself, underneath him was a puddle of water. The only other thing in the room was desk on the opposite wall which was too far away to stand on. The ceiling was also too high for the man to hand himself properly. Yet there was nothing in the room the man could of stood on, so how did he hang himself?" Sakura heard the man ask this as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd. When no one answered Sakura spoke up.

"He stood on a block of ice." She answered; her brother had told her this one before. People around her went "Oh." When they finally got it.

"Correct!" the man shouted, "Get two more right and you can answer the drawing for a mystery prize."

"Now on to the next question. This one's a little harder. Mr. John took his wife to a war movie. During a loud scene when guns and bombs were going off Mr. John shot his wife. No one noticed and Mr. John left the theater with his wife without getting caught. How'd he do this?" What Sakura wanted to know was _why_ the questions were so depressing.

"Because he shot her during a part when guns were going off, and he didn't shoot her in the right place to kill her so she could walk out." An adult somewhere behind Sakura said.

"That's the most common but incorrect answer. Any other guesses?" The man asked the crowd. Sakura could've heard crickets from all the response she heard from the crowd. Sighing, she answered:

"They were in a drive-in movie theater." The man laughed heartily and gave Sakura a small piece of candy.

"Correct again! One more for this teen here and she enters the drawing! Let's try one more and see if she can get it right! Two men witnessed a robbery. Mr. Adams was very trustworthy and said the thief's description along with that he was wearing sunglasses. Mr. Rutherfield was just as trustworthy and matched Mr. Adams description. A tall lanky white man with sandy brown hair and blue eyes. The detective pulled Mr. Rutherfield aside for more questioning. How did the detective know Mr. Rutherfield was lying?" The time Sakura was stumped. They were both just as trustworthy, but the detective knew Mr. Rutherfield was lying, but how?

"C'mon folks. Think about what I said carefully." The man spoke out after a minute's silence. Sakura thought about the description and then the answer hit her like a bullet.

"The man was wearing sunglasses. Mr. Rutherfield couldn't have known the color of the thief's eyes if he was wearing sunglasses!" Sakura answered excitedly.

"Once more correct! Come on over here and fill out a slip!" Pleased with herself Sakura bounced happily up to the booth and filled out an entry form. Then the man gave her a ten dollar gift card to a local bookstore.

"The drawing will be in a couple of days. We'll call you if you win." He told her, giving Sakura a friendly pat on the back. Sakura left the crowd with a smile on her face, her morale increased by a lot. It took her a minute of walking to realize someone was following her. She turned around nervously, but the man didn't hesitate to come right up to her. Surprisingly he slipped a card in her hand. He was dressed rather professionally, looking important, sort of like a lawyer.

"Wha?" Sakura asked, puzzled beyond anything.

"Hello there. I work with the Angelic Layer Company. I saw how intelligent you were back there and I was wondering if you wanted to test our new prototype angel-the male model. With your smarts you could go far in the Angelic layer world. I'm assuming you're going to say yes so I'll become your man-."

"No." Sakura interrupted.

"Right. No is something we can take care-wait what? HOW? No wait- why? Don't you want to be one of the first to play with a male Angel?" he asked, completely confused.

"I hate Angelic Layer." Sakura said, turning away from the man and walking home. The man was stunned.

"W-well. Just call the number on the card if you change your mind!"

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**A/N: The first chapter of my new story. I know it's kind of short, but I only have a little bit of time left before I have to leave for cheerleading tryouts. I'm so nervous, I really want to make the High School squad. So I really hope you'll enjoy this new story from BrookeLong!**


	2. The Sneaky Sister

**Chapter Two: The Sneaky Sister**

The sunlight blinked behind the glistening trees lining the street. The leftover puddles sparkled in the light, occasionally being disturbed by the wheel of a car running through them. Even though it wasn't morning all the birds chirped merrily, thankful for the break of rain and the plentiful supply of fresh worms brought up to the surface by the mud. Despite the cheerful and bright scene Sakura walked on in a fit of rage. Her happiness of getting entered in the drawing had been completely dissolved by the man and his offer. HOW DARE he ask her to play Angelic Layer!

Knowing she would make her family worry Sakura knew that she had to calm down by the time got home. Her house was some distance away from the station so it took a little while to get home, Sakura would be a little earlier today. She had walked fast enough to catch the prior train than the normal one she took back from school. Today she might even beat her parent's home, but her sister Mine would be there already. Kenichi, her older brother, wouldn't be home until later because he had soccer practice. Kenichi had been playing soccer since he was in elementary school. Now he was a senior, and getting ready to go to college. Sakura was happy for him, but she knew she would miss him a lot.

Sakura walked on her street, and saw that she had beaten her parents home. Her light green house with white shutter looked comforting and peaceful. It was one of the bigger houses on the street and had an in-ground pool. Sakura's father worked in advertising and had a nice income, but no one in the family let the money go to their head. She skipped every stone on the walkway as Sakura continued on to her house. From a window she could see her little sister sitting at the dining room table eating her snack and reading the newspaper. Sakura opened the door and walked inside where she was shocked at the blast of cold air that hit her. She knew Mine liked the house old, but this was cold even for her. She took off her shoes and put on her slippers. Mine didn't notice Sakura so she quietly slipped up the stairs and into her room.

When she turned on her light she felt her room was too happy to fit her mood. The pale orange walls and the pink shades along with a multi-colored bedspread were way too chipper. Sakura walked across the pink carpet and flopped on top of her bed. She rested on her right side and took out the card. It wasn't any different than a normal business card. It was a simple white with plain black lettering. The man's name was Ritsuka Tayoma, an Angelic Layer designer. His phone number and e-mail were on there also. Sakura scoffed and slammed the card down on bedside table. She tried to rest, but she felt the card was staring at her. She snatched the card back up and her hand shook while she held it.

Sakura sat at the side of her bed, a small hot tear dripped down her cheek and landed on the card. She began to silently tear up the card, again and again until it was so small the little pieces were falling out of her hand. She gathered all of the pieces and threw them into the garbage can as hard as she could, the little white scraps littering the bottom. A couple more tears fell down her face and she heaved a sob, covering her face with her hands. Sakura pulled her big plushy pillow to her face, it becoming wet with hot tears. She gasped for air, her fingernails digger deeper into the pillow, and tried to get her shoulders to stop shaking. She tried with all her might to stop crying, because she was breaking the faithful vow she had made to her brother so many years ago.

"Sakura! Are you home dear?" her mother called up the stairs. Sakura bolted up, rubbing the tears that still flowed down her face with the back of her sleeve.

"Yes." she replied as normally as she was able. Sakura gave the garbage can a slight kick and it bumped against the bedside table.

"Will you please come on down and help me with dinner?"

"Alright!" Sakura answered, rushing over to her mirror. The area under her eyes was a little red, despite how much she had cried. No one would be able to tell she was crying even if they got right up in her face. Leaving her room she walked down the stairs and almost bumped into Mine.

"Woah, when did you get home? I never heard you and I got really confused when mom called for you." Mine asked, rubbing the back of her head.

"Not that long ago really."

"Hey are you okay?" Mine asked.

"Mm-Hmm." She mumbled, walking past her sister into the kitchen. Her mother was putting away groceries and hadn't noticed that Sakura had come.

"I'm here."

"Ah right. Can you please start the rice for the Oyako-donburi and the noodles for the Yaki-udon? I can do the rest." Her mother asked.

"Hai." She took out two pots and filled them with water. When they both began to boil she added rice in one and the udon noodles in the other. Her mother finished putting away the items she didn't need and rushed her out of the kitchen. Kenichi had just walked in the door and was taking off his shoes.

"Hey Sakura." He said, acknowledging her as she walked past him.

"Hello Onnichan. Why are you home so early?"

"The rain's coming back, big storm." He walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.

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"Itadakimasu!" the Ohkawa family said after they had all sat down. They began to pass the food around, and while most of them were dishes Sakura liked she hardly took anything. While the rest of her family began to chat happily Sakura remained quiet. Mine was the first one to notice anything wrong.

"Oneechan what's wrong?" she asked, giving her sister a soft bump on the head. Sakura perked up and found everyone looking at her.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine really. I guess I'm just spacing out is all." She replied nervously.

"Really, are you sure. There's no one involved at all to ake you so jumpy?" Mine coaxed.

"No, no man or a deal or anything like that. Just normality with me."

"No man or a deal? That's obviously means they are involved, you just gave yourself away girl."

"Ah, I'm done." Sakura announced suddenly standing up, Mine grabbed her arm and stopped her from leaving.

"No way you're leaving now. I bet it even has to do with Angelic Layer, or else you wouldn't be so nervous and scared about telling us. Am I right Oneechan?" Mine looked her directly in the eyes

"Um." Sakura mumbled. She _really _didn't want to say yes, more than anything she didn't want to say yes. Mine's eyes were drilling into her, searching for the answer. If she didn't tell the truth now, she would find out sooner or later.

"Yes." She whispered very softly. The word wasn't even heard, but Mine saw her lips move and read them easily.

"I knew it! Now kindly sit down and tell us all about it."

"Mine." Their father said a little sternly.

"It's alright." Sakura told him, although she didn't really think that. Right now she just wanted to bash in Mine's face.

"It goes like this. I caught the early train after school and as I was walking home there was this stand with a small crowd in front of it. This man was asking trivia questions, and if you got three right you got entered into a drawing for some mystery prize. I thought hard and did get three of them right, and then he entered me in the drawing-." Mine cut her off.

"Ooh, let me guess. After that he sneaked up to you and said no one else would even get close to getting any correct so he offered you the grand prize, which has something to do with Angelic Layer right?"

"Uh no."

"Aww man." Mine complained.

"Anyway, after I left the crowd I found this man was following me. I first I thought he was stalking me. But then he came up to me and offered, well he offered me to be the deus for some new prototype angel, a male angel."

"You refused?" Mine said sadly, with anger and confusion in there somewhere.

"I had to, I couldn't handle it, being a deus. You know my reasons why, please don't push me."

"Oh fine." Mine huffed, standing up and then walked out of the room. They could hear the thuds of her walking up the stairs and a door closing. Sakura sighed and continued to eat, knowing if she talked more about it she might be swayed by her family to actually _accept_ the deal. The parents tried to resume normal conversation but it was a failed attempt. Finally they were done and Sakura was the first one to leave the table seeing as Keito had dish duty and her parents took care of the rest.

As she began to walk up the stairs she found Mine was coming down. Sakura planned to keep walking past her, but Mine stopped.

"Hey. I found the card in your trashcan, and I repaired it."

"What!" Sakura panicked.

"Yeah, and I called the guy and I told him you accepted. He's also your new manager and he's coming over tomorrow morning to give you you're new angel." She left the stunned Sakura to herself and continued her merry way downstairs into the room where the computer was.

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**A/N: Wow this chapter changed a lot from what I have written in my prewrite notebook. It's more emotional and instead of Mine called Mr. Tayoma, Mine yells at Sakura and unknowingly convinces here to call and accept the deal. To tell the truth I like this version much better. Please RR!**


	3. His Name is Keito

**His Name is Keito**

Sakura sat at her big plushy chair next to her window, watching the dawn creep over the horizon. Everything was still wet from the rain and the puddles were left even larger than they had been the day before. When she had turned on her radio earlier she heard that some areas had even lost their power. But at that moment a tornado could have ripped through Sakura's house and she still wouldn't have noticed. Her eyes were wide in panic and even her short fingernails began to make deep marks on her palms. Her back hurt so badly from the position she was in, but Sakura was so afraid she wouldn't let herself move.

Even though she was putting herself in pain she couldn't get mad at Mine no matter how much she wanted too. She had figured out sometime during the sleepless night that if Mine hadn't have called, she was almost convinced herself to call. Really she had just made the whole thing easier for Sakura, even if she was scared to death. But she had never told Sakura what time he was coming over so as soon as it turned 5am Sakura had gotten out of bed and gotten dressed. She hadn't really looked at what she had put on, and it really wasn't that much. Sakura had just thrown on a pair of jean shorts and a pink tank. She had even barely bothered with her hair, it was just thrown into a ponytail and not even combed.

It was Sunday so she knew most of her family would be sleeping in. Mine always slept the longest, although Kenichi was always the first one up and would be ready for anything. Her mom and dad were sort of in the middle and Sakura woke at some many different times that no one could keep track.

Sakura at the moment was watching for cars pulling up into the driveway, but she wasn't sure if she wanted the headups when he was coming or just have been surprised. Her breaths were deep and she exhaled loudly fighting her nerves. She wished at that moment that it was all a dream and none of it was happening.

She heard a knock on her door and perked up in surprise. It couldn't have been her new manager yet, she hadn't seen his car pull up. The air in the room was quiet and still even as Sakura crossed the room. Whoever it was it was most likely either Kenichi or her mom needing her help, no one else would need her yet. Sakura realized she had been standing there staring at the door for a while because the person knocked again. Sakura hastily opened the door and came face-to face with Mr. Tayoma.

Sakura stepped back and tripped over in shock and fear. She quickly sat up and rubbed the back of her head, her face red from embarrassment.

"Sakura-chan are you alright?" Kenichi asked, peeking out from behind Mr. Tayoma.

"Hai. Hai." Sakura mumbled standing back up, and fixing her shirt. She couldn't look Mr. Tayoma in the eye, so she looked at Kenichi instead. Mr. Tayoma seemed amused and didn't notice that Sakura wasn't looking at him. He walked into her room with an armful of bags and Kenichi walked in besides him with an even bigger package than all of the bags combined. He placed it in the corner, ruffled her hair, and left before Sakura could object. Mr. Tayoma was busying himself with setting up the computer and taking out the angel egg. He got the computer all set up and was ready to begin.

"Take this and we can get started." He said to Sakura. He tried to hand the egg behind him, but she didn't take it. After a couple seconds with the egg still in his hands, he turned around to see Sakura standing against the door, her face pale.

Her heart beat loudly in her ears, the throbbing painful. She wanted to burst out in tears right there, let the pain flow out, but she couldn't. Not in front of Mr. Tayoma, and even if he wasn't there she didn't think she could cry. Last night had been the first time she cried since she was six.

"Hey you alright?" Mr. Tayoma asked her, Sakura nodded her head.

"I'll be okay, just a little scared." Her voice trailed off.

"What was that last part? I couldn't catch it."

"It's nothing, don't worry about it."

"I won't if you don't want me to, now take the egg and let's get started on your new angel!" he said happily. Sakura walked over to him and slowly took the angel egg, wanting to smash it on the floor. Reluctantly she sat down on the floor next to Mr. Tayoma, but tried to keep her distance as much as she could. He handed a slip of paper with some letters and a number written on it.

"1MAPDEFSOACBSO." Sakura read out loud.

"It's the serial number. There's a little keypad on the egg and you punch that. There a little container inside the egg to which the fluids will drain into, and the little hatch under the pad will open up and you can take it out. I'll take it though because the fluids can be reused." He explained. Sakura looked at the paper one more time, thinking she had seen it somewhere before, and placed it on the ground. Sakura punched in the code, with glances back towards the paper to make sure she was correct.

Sakura watched the fluids magically disappear, and then the little hatch opening up and Mr. Tayoma snatching the cylinder. He took the angel and dried it with a cloth and placed the angel in the orange cylinder, then shifted the computer towards Sakura.

"You need to get a little closer." He said, seeing Sakura was three feet from the computer. Sakura scooted to the computer staring at the screen and then automatically pressed enter.

"How'd you know to do that?" Mr. Tayoma asked, surprised.

"It was on the screen." Sakura said, throwing a look asking Mr. Tayoma mentally asking if he knew what he was doing.

"Oh yeah." He laughed sheepishly. Sakura looked away and rolled her eyes, then put her gaze back on the screen. Now she was programming her angel's stats, already knowing what she wanted to make her angel like. Mr. Tayoma was really surprised at this, he couldn't believe it.

_"From what it looks like, she **really** hates Angelic Layer. Then, why is she so skilled, it's like she's done it so many times before."_ He thought to himself. Sakura was finishing up the appearance and weight of the angel. The setup of creating an angel had changed over the past couple years, now you typed in the description of the angel and the clothes would appear on the angel, although most people preferred sewing still.

Sakura was flying through the program with skill. It had been five minutes with Mr. Tayoma sitting in shock and Sakura's hands flying across the keyboard.

_"What's with this girl?"_ he asked in his mind again. Sakura finished and when the cylinder dissolved she took the angel. The angel was wearing a jet black tuxedo complete with a top hat and a white robin mask(1).

"May I see him for second?" Mr. Tayoma asked. Sakura shoved her angle into his hands, as if he were a disease she no longer wanted. Mr. Tayoma looked at the angel sadly, as if he felt the poor thing didn't deserve such hostile treatment. He took a chip out of his pocket and opened a tiny circular hatch on the back of the angel's neck. He stuck the chip into the hole, and closed it up. The angel's eyes flew open and he sprung to life. This seemed to spark a bit of interest in Sakura, but it didn't seem more to be a brief moment of curiosity.

"He's moving." She stated. Mr. Tayoma took her hand and let the angel walk from his to hers. The angel bowed as Mr. Tayoma began to speak.

"Yes, the version of the angel you have is able to accept this chip, which has a program we've been working on for years. This enables the angel to be able to move outside the layer, I could get more technical about it but it would just confuse you."

"Hmm." Sakura mumbled. As her angel walked onto her shoulder and sat down, she seemed to get more depressed.

"Would you help me open that big package that's just for you? This model won't be available to the public ever." He said giving her a smile, hoping it would make her feel better.

"Sure." said Sakura, like she was bored. She couldn't care about what it was, and whatever it was she didn't want it. She stood up, not caring if her angel fell off. She walked over with Mr. Tayoma to the big package which Kenichi had brought in. Mr. Tayoma took off the packaging and Sakura threw it away in her garbage can. Sakura knew what it was before Mr. Tayoma had even partially unwrapped it. He was going slowly at it, and if trying to build up suspense but failing miserably.

Sakura was getting a little angry now, bent over the package, and forcefully tore the rest of the packaging off. The debris was too big to fit into her tiny garbage can so she just laid it on the floor.

"There you go! Your own home size layer! What do you think!" he said excitedly, not noticing Sakura's irritated action.

"It's real great." Sakura replied. She tried to say it as honestly as she could, but truthfully once again she wanted to stomp on it and smash it to bits.

"I'm happy. We finished a lot quicker than we thought, do you want to leave early?" he asked, leaving her confused.

"What?" Sakura panicked.

"Oh that girl didn't tell you? I came early because today all the people who are getting these new angels are going in front of the main Angelic Layer building for public introduction. It's going to be this whole big thing, lot's of news crews, lots of people. And every person who has received the male angel is _required_ to be there." He ended, emphasizing the word required.

"You aren't serious are you!" Sakura panicked, finally looking him in the eye.

"Oh yes I'm quite serious." He told her, the tone of his voice changing, "That's the reason I came so early because it starts early. I met you parents when I came in and they said that it was alright with them if it was alright with you. Aaaaaand since it's reqqqqqqquired…" he finished, stretching his words out.

"Fine." Sakura huffed under her breath.

"Really? I thought it would take more than that to convince you."

"Can we just go?" Sakura asked impatiently, standing up to leave the room.

"Don't you want to change? If you want to go on T.V that's broadcasted all across Japan looking like that be my guest, but you should probably change." Sakura pulled him out of the room and locked the door behind him. She took her angel off her shoulder and placed him on top of the dresser, and changed her clothes. When she finally came out she was wearing a soft periwinkle shirt, a short chocolate brown skirt and black leggings. Sakura had brushed her hair out and had made pigtail braids with a single brown ribbon weaved into them.

"Better?" she asked.

"Much." Mr. Tayoma smiled.

"Let's go then." Sakura commanded this time, walking past him.

"Wait, where's your angel?" he asked, seeing he was not on her shoulder. Sakura turned on her heel, went back into her room and got her angel. This time she didn't stop as she walked out past Mr. Tayoma again. She could hear him following behind and tried to walk a bit faster.

She rushed to switch her shoes, her angel almost falling off, and was leaving poor Mr. Tayoma in her dust. He was able to get his shoes on quick enough and was about to follow Sakura out the door, when she slammed it in his face.

"I'm sorry about that, she has a good reason for acting this way. But I guess it's still not right." Kenichi said, appearing from behind him.

"I'm sure the reason is good, I think I even know what it is." Mr. Tayoma replied quietly.

"Really?" Kenichi asked.

"Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but that serial code, and her hair seem to familiar." He replied before heading out the door to a waiting Sakura.

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"Sakura-san, what did you name your angel?" a reporter asked, shoving a microphone at Sakura, who was being asked millions of questions at the same time.

"His name's Keito, I named him after my brother." Sakura replied, putting on a fake smile and wishing that she would stop being asked this question. The T.V interview was over and now magazine and newspaper reporters were mingling with the people who got the angels. They had been standing and talking there for over an hour and Sakura just wanted to leave. Mr. Tayoma had been by her side for about half and hour keeping her from being mobbed, but he had become hopelessly lost for a while now.

"Are you going to enter any tournaments?"

"Have you played any Angelic Layer before?"

"Can you tell us what you think the major differences between the angels are besides gender?"

"Where did you meet your manager?"

"Would you like to win the National Tournament?"

"Do you think you could be the next Miracle Rookie?"

"What type is your angel?"

"Do you think you can beat the other male angels here, they look pretty strong."

Sakura's head was bursting with all the questions at once, and most of them she didn't have an answer to. A hand was placed on her shoulder and she pulled away in terror, then she saw it was her manager.

"C'mon, it's been time to leave for a while. More and more reporters keep coming, it will be days before you can answer all their questions. Not to mention there's a huge crowd of fans outside the lines, wanting to meet all of you, so we really need to get all of you home." He whispered in her ear, keeping quiet from all the reporters still burying them with questions.

He helped her shove her way through the crowd, which seemed to grow larger every minute. One of the reporters grabbed Sakura's wrist to stop her and ask her a question, but she jerked it away and began to run her way through. Mr. Tayoma followed quickly knocking people over. They finally made their way through, stopping to pant and fall over in exhaustion.

"I didn't want this." Sakura spoke to herself between gasps. A couple of other scared teens appeared, clutching their angels, looking glad to escape the crowd.

"We should leave now, before they figure out all six of you have left the crowd." He steered her back into his car and hastily pulled out into the street. They both heaved a huge sigh of relief, sinking back into their seats. Both silent again, then Sakura gripped her armrests tight and then spoke.

"Hey um, thanks for helping me out. I'm sorry I acted like I did back at the house too. I'm really not like that." She apologized.

"No problem Sakura-chan." Mr. Tayoma smiled.

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**(1) A mask that Robin from Teen Titans or Batman wears, except it's white not black. **

**A/N: Done! This chapter was especially hard to write with marching band practices and games. Plus holding up my baritone like a trumpet when it weighs like fifteen pounds, which puts a lot of strain on the back. It hurts terribly to stand or even sit in chair. I can barely lift my arms above my shoulders, but I still have to hold that heavy thing up, but enough complaining …**

**I hope you liked this chapter and will review to make me happy!**


	4. Mystery Man

**Mystery Man**

Sakura's eyes fluttered open, the sunlight peeking through the blinds. After the days of harsh rain there hadn't been a single cloud in the sky, they had rained themselves dry. Sakura turned over in her bed, snuggling against the warm covers trying to remember what day it was. Her mind was blank, it was too early for her to remember anything, so she turned to her ever trusty clock. The little flashing letters in the corner said it was Monday. Sakura hugged her knees to her chest trying to soak in the last moments of warmth before she walked out into the cold of her room.

As she sat up into the breathtaking cold air Keito hopped from her pillow to her lap. Ever since the interview Sakura had been ignoring him as much as she could, doing her best to keep calm. Still, every morning he was right there, resting next to her on the pillow. His face reminded Sakura that she had promised to bring him to school today. Her classmates had seen her on television and had begged and begged her to bring in Keito, and on Saturday morning they had worn her down enough for her to agree.

The interview had changed a lot of things. There were rumors about the sudden disappearance and how all six Deus had been avoiding them. Every time Sakura had left the house she could always hear a reporter creeping in the bush behind her, waiting for a moment when they would be able to catch her off guard and be able to talk to her. Monday had been a total disaster with the reporters sneaking into the school after following Sakura there. Kenichi was now escorting her to school making sure no one was following, and most had given up by now.

Sakura reluctantly changed, wishing desperately she could cut school or get sick, break a limb, _anything_. School was the last place she wanted to go to right now, with everyone bugging her about her stupid angel and the press trying to get in. Keito was following her around as she got ready, looking ecstatic that he was going to see the walls outside Sakura's room. Sakura sighed and finished tying a ribbon in her hair and grudgingly placed Keito on her shoulder before walking out of her room.

She could feel herself blanking out as she walked down the stairs, her body moving automatically while her mind seemed to leave her body. She wasn't even aware she had even said hello to her family eating let alone start eating her food. She munched slowly on her food the taste buds not reacting making it seem like she was eating air. Keito jumped off her shoulder and sat down next to her plate, smiling up at her.

The sight of him brought Sakura back down to Earth with a large crash. She had looked at him many times before, but now a block of fury rose in her throat. She kept her face emotionless, but as she picked up Keito her arm was so close to throwing him against the wall or something that would make him stop smiling at her.

She put Keito on her shoulder and stood up so forcefully she almost knocked her chair over. Her family looked up at her with surprised.

"I'm going to school." She announced, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Wait Sakura, you'll need me to go with you." Kenichi said, starting to get up even though his plate was barely touched.

"No." Sakura said forcefully, and then rushed out of the house. She slammed the door behind her and the bushes behind her rustled loudly. Sakura stopped suddenly and glared into the bushes, and gave them a good kick. A man with a camera fell out of them and once he caught sight of Sakura's glower he took off like a bullet.

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"Kya! Saku-chan he's so cute! Can I hold him, please!" Hinako was the first one to get to her after Sakura had come inside. She hadn't even had a chance to switch her shoes yet. Sakura quickly handed him over without any hesitation or apprehension. Hinako ran up the stairs to the classroom with him. Once the other girls came in and saw Hinako running away they quickly rushed after her. Sakura changed her shoes and silently followed in the shadows of the other girls, walking with a heavy heart.

She shut the sliding door to the classroom and saw all the girls in her class making one big circle around Hinako who was still holding Keito.

"Hinako-chan! He can move on his own, let him go and let's see what he can do!" one of the girls suggested.

"Hai." Keito was set free and looked up at the girls and smiled, then gave them a peace sign. Every girl in the classroom squealed loudly the second the teacher came in and walked over to the desks to see what was going on. Normally she didn't allow angels in the classroom but once she saw Keito she became as infatuated as the giggling girls next to her.

The boys were also starting to form around the girls interested in the moving angel. The final bell rang but no one seemed to notice except Sakura, not even the teacher. She rested her head on the desk looking out the window at the city seeing a plane talking off. Sakura wished she could fly away at that moment and never come back, leaving Keito behind.

Another teacher came into the room and cleared her throat. The teacher came back to attention and gave the students such a look that they were sitting in their seats in less than a second. Keito hopped onto her desk and sat down happily, swinging his legs back and forth.

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Sakura was able to escape the school from her classmates with the help of her friend from Armritsar, Lakhi. Lakhi had moved to Japan in grade school, and at first Sakura and Lakhi were worst enemies. Sakura's brother helped patch them over and they became best friends. Sakura was getting worried though because Lakhi's parents were thinking about moving back to Armritsar and not coming back.

Sakura rushed out of the school and looked up at the school seeing her classmates hurrying down the stairs trying to catch up to her. They had mobbed her and Keito again during lunch so Sakura and Lakhi locked themselves in a closet to eat. Sakura looked around in panic, trying to think of which way to go. Next thing she knew she was being shoved into a car by Mr. Tayoma, who locked the door once he got in.

"Classmates can be just as a scary as the press. And from what I've heard these students go over the top when it comes to Angelic Layer." He said turning on the car and driving away just as Sakura's classmates came out the door.

"Uh yeah." Sakura mumbled.

"Do you have your angel with you or do we need to stop by your house first?" he asked her, turning left and stopped at a red light.

"I have him with me."

"That's really good, or we would have been late anyway."

"Late for what?"

"You'll see."

Mr. Tayoma parked the car in the back of Piffle Princess near the employee entrance. He got out and opened the door for Sakura and she started to get out. A news van went past and parked on the side of the building.

"Get down." Mr. Tayoma said, blocking her from sight of the van. The people inside the van got out and took out cameras and went inside the building. Mr. Tayoma looked over his shoulder to see if everyone was out and inside. He sighed and stood up straight, looking at Sakura who was a little ruffled and at that moment Keito who hopped onto his owner.

"What was that about?" Sakura asked fixing her hair.

"It seems someone kicked one of the head reporters out of a bush this morning and now the press are having a major field day about it." He gave her a look and Sakura bowed her head.

"Oh. Sorry." She whispered.

"It's alright but we have to some damage control. They think you're some violent, crazy girl now."

"How are you supposed to fix that?"

"Don't worry I've fixed worse things. They were stalking you also so we can use that to counter the harsh articles." Another news van pulled into the parking lot. Mr. Tayoma jerked his head towards the building and they bent over and ran through the rows of cars and into the building, shutting the door behind them and panting heavily. They caught their breath for a moment before Mr. Tayoma led her up a flight of stairs and down a long hallway. Sakura saw the opening to the main room where it was packed with people and news teams waiting around with their cameras ready.

"How am I supposed to sneak you around that? There's no way we could get into the room where we need to go without you being spotted." Mr. Tayoma whispered, pulling Sakura with him behind a support pillar. He took off his hat and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm, than his eyes flew open.

"Hide your hair under this and put on my jacket. My daughter also uses these colored contacts and I always have some on me just in case. If they see you don't have blue eyes and shorter-looking hair, the news teams will think you're just a look-a-like." Sakura didn't even get to blink as he shoved the hat and jacket into her arms and Mr. Tayoma began to dip the contacts in the cleaning liquid. She put on the jacket and tried to neatly tuck her hair under the hat, but when her manager handed her the green contacts she stopped.

"I've never put on contacts before and I'm terrified of sticking things into my eyes."

"It's for thirty seconds as we cross the room. I could help you put them in if you need."

"Uh, no. I-I can do it." She turned away and forced herself to put the contacts in, her eyes stinging and watering. Mr. Tayoma took Keito and put him in his bag and took the first step into the crowd. Sakura tried to follow, but rubbing her eyes while following somebody in a huge crowd was difficult. Sakura could hear whispers all around her because she was making quite a spectacle of herself with her wet eyes.

_"Hey is that Sakura Ohkawa?"_

_"No the hair is too short, but it looks like she's crying."_

_"How sad!"_

_"She's following that man."_

_"Maybe he made her cry!"_

_"Is he her dad?"_

_"Maybe an older brother?"_

_"Maybe she has a much older boyfriend?"_

_"Yeah, and he broke up with her and she's trying to keep them together?"_

_"Eww. No way, that's nuts."_

Sakura and Mr. Tayoma got into the right room and Sakura gladly closed the door behind her and leaned on it, shutting the group of girls that was staring at her. Sakura's eyes were swimming with tears and many were running down her face. She took out the contacts and rubbed her eyes with the edge of Mr. Tayoma's jacket.

"I'll take care of those." Mr. Tayoma said, and Sakura placed the contacts in his hand. When her sight was clear Sakura saw four other people in the room looking at her. She knew they were the other Deus's but she didn't know anyone by name. The door behind her shoved open and it flung Sakura on the floor, and the last girl and her manager fell on top of her.

"This is not my day." Sakura mumbled behind gritted teeth. She struggled to get up from the weight of the two people on her. Mr. Tayoma took her hand and helped stand her up straight. The girl and her manager stood up wobbly and Mr. Tayoma locked the door behind them. They could now hear shouts coming from behind the door, the shuffling of chairs and news teams shouting instructions to each other.

"That was Haru Watase who went in there!" a male voice shouted.

"Mai-chan that was Sakura!"

"That guy must have been her manager then!"

"You're right Kimi-chan!"

"Shh Alya-chan! Maybe we can hear them talk!"

"Are the others in there?" a different voice said.

"They must be!" a male voice said. The door handle jiggled as sometime tried to get inside the room. Sakura backed up fearfully away from the door and almost tripped over a chair.

"Okay everybody please move away from the door!"

"Sir no one is allowed in that room without permission!"

"Piffle Princes is closing early!"

"Everyone has to leave now!"

"That is a private meeting!"

"Young lady you have to go!"

Some of the workers were trying to hold off the crowd.

_"We'll have to get the bodyguards." _One of them said loud enough for Sakura to hear.

"Bodyguards, we need bodyguards!" she asked Mr. Tayoma.

"Sakura wait until the crowd dies down then we'll talk about it alright?" Sakura crossed her arms and sighed. The noise from outside the door lessened a bit but it was still strong. It was about ten or fifteen minutes before all the noise went away and the workers left to lock all the doors. The tension had been building up in the room and everybody began to loosen up. Mr. Tayoma plomped down in a chair and hung his head back in exhaustion.

"So now we have bodyguards?" Sakura asked again.

"For good reasons. We didn't want to tell you because we didn't want you to think that your lives had changed this much." The other male manager spoke up now, adjusting his glasses.

"Our lives changed so much we need bodyguards?" Sakura asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yes. For a while now Angelic Layer has been losing its edge. People get bored of things rather quickly, and Angelic Layer has become one of those things. It's hard to keep people interested with the same old-same old, and now so few people are even coming to watch the tournaments. Only recently has the interest sparked again, that's all because of the male angels. Because of the male angels Angelic Layer is more popular than ever." The man finished.

"And?" Haru asked. The manager sighed, running his fingers through his blond hair.

"And of course the Deus of each angel would be just as big of a hit. There's no way of telling what people would do. Take an example, the reporters following to school was a big problem. We secretly asked male members of each family to take you to school, so you would have no idea that the bodyguards were actually the ones scaring off the press. There was one who slipped through this morning, as you know Sakura, and the guards went bully on him big time." Mr. Tayoma finished for the other manager.

"How many guards are there for each of us?" one of the littler boys asked. He looked no older than seven and had sandy blonde hair. The other male manager was his manager, and the boy looked a pale and frightened at the moment.

"One for now, but we may have to add more and they'll have to be with you and not hiding in secret."

"Is it really that bad?" Sakura asked frantically.

"It is that bad Sakura. We never imagined people to go this crazy about it. We just wanted to keep Angelic Layer alive for a few more years."

"You certainly got your wish at the price of out freedom." Sakura mumbled incoherently.

"Why are we here?" one of the girls asked.

"We were originally planning on testing your abilities, but due to everything I'm guessing we'll send you home now." The male manager said.

"I think that's best."

"So you drag us all the way down here just to take us home!" Sakura asked vigorously.

"Yes, Sakura. Even if you fell up to it I don't think everyone else is up to it. We also have to do other things, like I still have to do some damage control for your stunt this morning." Mr. Tayoma said, standing up. For the first time Sakura a real glint of anger and impatience in his eye. It was terrifying.

"Fine." She answered, his stiff tone loosening up. Mr. Tayoma unlocked the door and a man in a casual suit.

"Aah sempai, good to see you."

"Same to you Ritsuka." The man responded.

"Do you need me to do something?"

"Ritsuka I would like to talk to you, and I'll have Shiwahara drive Ms. Ohkawa home."

"Hai." Mr. Tayoma replied. The others began to file out and another man with a black suit and mustache signaled for her to follow him. Sakura gave a desperate look to her manager before reluctantly following the stranger. The door closed behind them and the room became darker and the air quieter.

"What is it about?"

"Sakura, she always seemed familiar."

"You know her?"

"I think so, but she doesn't seem to remember me."

"You've met her before?

"Yes, but it was a while ago."

"But, what about her?"

"I realized something about her and why she changed so much. I was hoping if you could share some more insight on it."

"I'm sorry, you probably know more than I do."

"I should've guessed. But Ritsuka…"

"What?"

"Don't give up on her. She seems like a person who can really get under your skin and make her someone who you truly despise." Mr. Tayoma seemed a little shocked at this, but nodded anyway.

"I won't." he replied sternly.

"Good, let's leave then." The two left the room and went separate ways. Mr. Tayoma sat down in his hot car and turned it on. His set his bag down on the seat next to him, then turned on the air conditioner. He heard a rustling coming from the bag and unzipped it. There was Keito very ruffled looked, and ecstatic to be out of the stuffy bag.

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**A/N: Finally updated. I'm not going to go into a rant about how different it from my original idea, even though it has, and just try and ignore that. Because I'm lazy I don't put up disclaimers. So I figured I should just in case.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Angelic Layer, the awesome CLAMP does. I own Sakura, Ritsuka, Keito, Kenichi, Mine, The other male manager, Sakura's mom and dad, Haru, The little boy, the bodyguards, the mystery man, the guy with the 'stache, and all the others. I don't really own Lakhi though. If you've watched Pride and Prejudice you'll see she's a character there and I just tweaked it a bit so she could be Sakura's best friend. The Ohkawa name actually belongs to one of the members of CLAMP also if names count for anything. Nothing else important to mention. Probably the longest disclaimer I've seen so far, but I could most likely find a bigger one.**

**There we go. Gotten that off my mind, now I just have to do one for My Tennis Angel.**

**ATTENTION: There is going to be a crossover from another story that some of you might be familiar with. Keep reading to find out what it is, it's gonna come up within the next few chapters!**


	5. One of Life's Lessons

**One of Life's Lessons**

Several days later Sakura had not gone back to school since the second major encounter with the press, and Mr. Tayoma had given Keito back the day after. Sakura's bodyguard was introduced to her and was now staying in her house, and although she was friendly Sakura couldn't help but feel a little abhorrence to her. She wasn't able to go back to school until the reporters stopped swarming around her house every time her parents left to go to work, Kenichi left for practice, and poor Lakhi got attacked as she tried to bring Sakura her school work.

Mr. Tayoma was practically living at their house also, doing major press control. He seemed very experienced at handling crowds and within three days lessened the amount of people trying to get a hold of them by way more than half. Mr. Tayoma said most of the reason there was such a huge problem was that the press hadn't had anything huge to report for so long, and that it wasn't Angelic Layer they were so much interested in.

It was early morning and Sakura was resting comfortably on a recliner, letting the rays of sun peeking from behind the curtains be her light. Mr. Tayoma was sleeping on the couch, and groaned as he turned over, his blanket being wrapped around tighter on his body. Sakura felt sorry for him, his young face had dark lines under his eyes, Sakura knew he hadn't been able to see his wife and daughter for a couple days, and he had to deal with so much pressure.

Sakura's mother was already up and making breakfast and the smell of fresh waffles made Sakura go to waffle heaven. Mr. Tayoma must have smelt them also because he woke up took a large breath of the warm air, and rolled off the couch. He laid there for a moment, twitching before getting to his feet. He had slept in his clothes and they were beginning to get all wrinkled.

"You better not say 'Have a nice fall'." He told her, somewhat sarcastically and somewhat serious.

"Like I would use that lame line even once in my life." Sakura scoffed, smiling slightly. Mr. Tayoma smiled back and wobbled slowly into the kitchen where Sakura's mom greeted him cheerfully. Mine came down the stairs in her pajamas and rubbing her eyes.

"It's early, but I smelt waffles, so I got up." She spoke in a choppy sentence, not quite all awake yet.

"Mom! Mine's up! You better hide all the waffles!" Sakura yelled to the kitchen.

"Don't worry we have plenty!" her mother yelled back.

"I doubt that." Sakura mumbled, watching Mine trip over the leg of a chair. Mine was always a klutz in the morning and had a hard time getting ready for school each and every day. Sakura took her sister's arm and led her into the kitchen where Mr. Tayoma was already finishing his first serving of waffles.

"How many do you want Sakura?" her mother asked.

"Just one. I'm not that hungry and it's not like I'm doing anything today."

"I wouldn't be so sure 'bout that." Mr. Tayoma mumbled through a mouthful of waffles.

"Why? What did you do?" she asked him, her eyes glaring. He swallowed and answered.

"Calm down girl, I didn't do anything. All the Deus's need to really meet without the interruption like what happened last time. It was set up by the head manager, not by me. You don't have to go, but it's a pretty crucial need-to-be-there kind of meeting." He said in that persuasive voice. At this point Sakura felt so trapped that she would go anywhere, even if it did have to do with Angelic Layer

"What time do we have to leave?" she asked petulantly.

"Oh joy." Mr. Tayoma said idiotically, "We leave in about an hour." Then he began to stuff the waffles down his throat like no tomorrow. Sakura walked up the stairs and went into the bathroom to take a shower. She stood there for fifteen minutes, which was a long shower for her, and just let the warm water run over her. She finally got dressed and blow-dried her hair, then began to feel a little better. Sakura looked out her window seeing a family of birds flying away, but one was lagging behind looking like it was hurt. She felt bad for it as it flew towards the sun desperately trying to catch up to its family.

Sakura's head drooped a little and she picked up a picture next to her hand and looked at it. The glare from the sun hide the person's face and she stared at it sadly, before putting back on her dresser with the picture facing down. Her watch beeped and sprung up, she had set it so she would know when it was time to leave. Keito hopped onto her shoulder and Sakura grabbed her bag before rushing out of the room. Mr. Tayoma was dressed and waiting along with Sakura's bodyguard. They waited for Sakura to get her shoes on before standing on each side of her and then stepping out into the air for the first time in a while. No one jumped up from the bushes or from behind a tree so they walked into Mr. Tayoma's car without any interruptions.

It was a quiet ride as the three headed to Piffle Princess, talking at that point seemed unnecessary. Sakura, sitting in the back seat, was staring out the window with her eyes glazing over. She felt so numb to anything that was going on, her attention was in her thoughts and her body just did what it was told without registering anything. In about fifteen minutes they pulled up to their destination, it feeling like it had been forever since they had been there when it had really only been a couple days. There wasn't nearly as many people here and there were no news vans at all.

They parked closer and walked in the employees' entrance slowly, not feeling any need to rush. Mr. Tayoma took Sakura in a different direction than he had before, leading her into a large brightly lit room was two huge humming layers. Another boy and girl with their managers and bodyguards were already waiting, and as soon as Sakura took a seat the last three rushed in simultaneously. The last two girls who came in seemed to know each other and started talking once the sat down. Sakura looked around at all the male angels and what they looked like and what types they were.

The room felt relaxed but everyone seemed to be waiting in anticipation for what ever was going to happen to happen. Sakura felt a little annoyed, she thought it was just a meeting but with the humming layer she figured she wasn't actually going to have to play Angelic Layer. A soft talk rose up in the room mostly, between the two girls. Some of the managers were talking to each other , but the other four Deuses remained quiet. Sakura leaned back and sighed, wishing something would happen. Two seconds later she got her wish as the door opened for the last time and the man who had come in at the end of the last meeting was here now along with the guy who had driven Sakura home. The talking ceased and everybody was staring at him, and he smiled back cheerfully.

"Hello all! As your managers have probably told you this is a meeting that was supposed to happen last time, but with the interruption it had to be canceled. It was meant to be a little mixer, get you all to know each other, and to also measure you skills. We figured you would get to know each other with the um, ah event coming up so today will have just be the evaluation." He took a pause and left Sakura wondering what the event would be, "Most of you have played Angelic Layer before so what you will be doing is spreading out among the layer and showing your managers what you can do. They will tell you to do different things and write it down on their clipboard. It will take up about fifteen minutes and will tally up your score and work on you skills for the event coming up."

To the managers it seemed normal, but the six minors were a little taken back by the sudden commands and the almost random guy in front of them telling them to do it. One of the girls raised her hand almost scared-like. The guy nodded her head towards him and she stood up.

"Um, may I ask who are you and what is the event?" She looked to be about a year younger than Sakura and rather timid and quiet.

"I am the head manager, the Head Cheese in Charge or the H.C.I.C, that's all you need to know. The event will be kept secret from you for just a little while longer, but rest assured you will find out eventually. I was also just supposed to do the intro and must leave to finish my work, but I will leave Ritsuka in charge." He took something from his pocket and tossed it over to Sakura's manager, who caught it and nodded. The man smiled and left the room with his assistant following, Mr. Tayoma turned back to the group and the managers went back to their kids. Mr. Tayoma took the key and inserted it into one of the layers, the layer going from standby mode to its on mode. He did this to both layers and pocketed the key.

"Shall we get started?" he asked Sakura, who looked mad at this point.

"I didn't know we actually had to practice." She told him folding her arms.

"Surely you didn't think the angel were just showpieces? There are some fights involved, but you'll find out about that later. Now come sit down." He told her, putting his hand on the back of a chair and holding up a headset. Sakura scowled and sat down in the seat, adjusting the headset to fit her and turning it on. Keito eagerly hopped into the layer or the first time, now under Sakura's control.

"I can figure you've played a couple times from what your brother and parents have told me, but just to see how good you are at it walk around for a few seconds, then run, and then try a cartwheel." He instructed sitting down next to her, holding his clipboard with his pencil ready. Sakura took a deep breath and Keito took a few steps forward, easing himself into a run, then during mid-run did a cartwheel. Sakura didn't stop him after that, Keito did another cartwheel then a series of front flips before stopping.

"Excellent." Mr. Tayoma said with a smile, but was also a little surprised. Sakura looked almost bored as if it was too easy for her.

"Show me a couples punches, some kicks, and any other kind of attack you know."

Keito shot out a couple punches, transitioning smoothly into a series of kicks, before taking a quick pause. Mr. Tayoma looked over at Sakura curiously to find her eyes closed. They snapped open and Keito spun in a circle, his arms out so he looked like a top, gaining more momentum every second. Mr. Tayoma watched eagerly to see what was going to happen, wondering what Sakura had in store. Within a blink of the eye Keito stopped and a huge vortex of wind shot out from around him, almost knocking the other angels in the layer out. Keito had slumped over a bit from releasing the attack and stood up, looking serious, completely different from the smile he always had on his face when he was out of the layer.

The room went dead quiet as everyone looked at Sakura, the youngest boy staring at her with his mouth open. Mr. Tayoma whistled, looking at Keito with interest.

"Wow." He said as the others stared for a minute more and then slowly went back to what they were doing, stealing glances at her every few seconds. "How'd you manage to do that?" he asked.

"The modern layers have a wind program that the old ones didn't. It's meant to keep out interference from outside the layer, such in the case of an outside tournament. It regulates the outside wind velocity to keep the air in the layer stable. I figured out a long time ago how to tap into this program and control it, so I can use wind moves which is good in a bind." She looked over at him, "You probably knew about the wind program already though."

"Yes. I am on the design team, so in addition to building the angels I helped build the layers. But how did you know about that?"

"It says it in the manual that came with the layer you gave me. Of course it didn't tell me how to control the program, I had to figure that out myself and it's the only reason why I even used it."

"I see." He looked at his paper and then back to Keito, then his paper again, "It's pretty obvious you are going to ace this evaluation but we have to suffer through it anyway."

"What else could there be? It's pretty obvious I already know all the stupid basics and that I can fight well." Sakura retorted, slouching back in her chair.

"You'll be happy to know that there is only one thing left, but you might not be happy to know that you have to fight right now." He closed his eyes, expecting her to start complaining or run out of the room or something of the sort. A couple seconds passed and there was only silence, he opened his eyes.

"No boom?" he asked.

"No boom." Sakura replied simply, "I realized I'm stuck in this anyway, so even if I get mad I'm only making it worse for me." Mr. Tayoma and smiled and looked down at his clipboard.

"We set up the matches earlier last night. The six of you will be paired off with another, and all your skills will be put to the test. Everything you know rolled up into one, but um… We might have to wait a minute for everyone else to finish up. It's only five minutes into the evaluation." He finished. Sakura took of her headset and placed it on the chair, Keito reverting back to normal and hopping out of the layer and onto the chair also.

"In that case I'm going to the bathroom."

"Oh it's down the hall and up the stairs, if you-."

"I already know where it is." Sakura replied, cutting him off and starting to walk away. She paused and without turning around said, "Thanks."

The door closed behind her and Mr. Tayoma looked at Keito and Keito looked back.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Ten minutes later Sakura was back in the room wand waiting once more. She wondered who her opponent would be, and wondered how good they were. The only one who seems to be having immense trouble was the youngest boy, and it looked like it might have been his first time in the layer. Sakura wondered why in the world he was chosen, he didn't have much skill or any special move.

He was the last one to finish the evaluation and looked rather embarrassed when he figured out they were all waiting for him. Mr. Tayoma cleared his throat and everyone looked at him, he held up a single sheet of paper for everyone to see.

"This is the list of you match-ups. I'm going to stick it to the bulletin board here and you can come over and look at it. All three matches will happen at one time, one layer holding two battles and the other holding the last one. Try not to destroy the opposing angel beyond repair kay? They are already expensive enough." He told all of them before turning around a pinning the sheet onto the bulletin board behind him. After he moved away the Deuses rushed up to the front, except Sakura who was in the back, and the boy who was told to stay by his manager. Just before she got to the front Mr. Tayoma grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

"Listen Sakura, we really need something from you." He spoke to her in a quiet voice, rushing fast, "Your match is against that boy, and well we want you to throw the match. He's having a real hard time getting started and it would boost his confidence so much if he could beat you. We know you'd do well on the evaluation anyway so you'd score a perfect. He really needs this, please will you do it?'

He was almost pleading with her, Sakura threw her head to the side and sighed.

"Thank you so much Sakura." They walked over to the layer and Mr. Tayoma, who had Keito, placed him back in the layer. Sitting down, Sakura put the headset on once more and prepared herself. Spotting the boy's angel she saw it was a ninja. It was covered completely in black, with a mask and black scarf to match. Only the eyes could be seen and they were a navy blue. It was obvious he didn't know this was going to be a fixed match and was looking terrified with his manager trying to console him without exposing anything. Mr. Tayoma was helping the other fight on their layer get set up, letting the managers know exactly what to look for and other things.

He finally came back over to Sakura and asked her if she was ready, and she replied yes. To throw the match, Sakura thought it was a horrible thing to ask. The boy put on his headset and his angel, who was standing normally before, was shaking and trying to maintain balance. How was she supposed to lose to him when he would already take a century to even hit her?

"You can start whenever you are ready." Mr. Tayoma said, flashing Sakura a quick look before turning away to observe the other matches. Her blood began to boil a little at this, it was really getting to her.

The boy hesitated and then ran slowly towards Keito, throwing a punch. Sakura made a fake dodge, pretending the Keito tripped over his legs, letting the punch hit. It was so weak it didn't do much damage, but the boy seemed to get more confident. His angel threw a kick and Sakura let it hit Keito square in the chest, making him fall over. As soon as Keito stood up, the boy hit him with three punches and a good kick. Despite this they had almost not power and had barely made a dent in Keito's stats.

It was like that for another ten minutes, the boy hitting Keito and Sakura doing nothing to stop it. Keito had one-third of his power left, the boy's attacks growing more steady and powerful. Sakura felt so used, and that Keito was just a tiny punching bag. The ninja angel landed his most powerful hit on Keito yet, a swift upper-cut straight to Keito's jaw. His points trickled just above zero and Sakura did what she knew she was going to do all along.

Keito stood up straight and got a fighter look in his eyes. Before the boy knew what happened Keito had already run into him with a powerful wind punch, and the ninja angel was sent clear out of the layer, making Sakura the winner. The boy looked dumbfounded and the two managers almost livid.

"What-uh, how did, but you were…" the boy mumbled looking at Sakura in surprise. Sakura turned off her headset and took it off, the tattered-looking Keito jumping onto her shoulder.

"Let me give you a little life lesson here. You probably didn't know this but your dim-witted manager and mine told me to throw the match."

"You said you would do it!" Mr. Tayoma said defensively.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember saying I was going to do it. All I remember is sighing and looking away in agitation." She gave him a glance that matched his earlier one, "This is more directed to them than you since you had no idea what was going on, but I _never_ throw a fight, not even in Angelic Layer. Especially also if it's to boost someone confidence or make them happy. Since I'm not stupid and I have common sense I know what you are trying to prepare us for, and this is the worst way to go about it. For what's coming up his opponents are not going to throw the match just so they don't hurt his self-esteem, so why should I? It only gives false pride and confidence. He'll completely bomb when he figures out that all his matches aren't going to be just to suit him."

The room was silent after her short speech. The anger from the two managers' faces was gone and was replaced by a guilty and an "I'm sorry" look. Sakura didn't think her words were that powerful, to her they hadn't sounded as convincing as they had in her head. The other managers looked at Mr. Tayoma as to what to do, and it took him a minute to realize he was being stared at.

"Oh, right. Um well, the evaluations are over and in a week we will meet her again for an announcement. Managers have your pupils practice hard and teach them some tricks for the event coming up." The managers nodded and left to go to their little Deuses. Mr. Tayoma came over to her and remained silent. Sakura wasn't really mad anymore, but felt like she had nothing more to say.

Fifteen minutes later after packing up Sakura, her goofball manager, and her bodyguard were driving out of the Piffle Princess parking lot.

"So you know?" Mr. Tayoma asked Sakura.

"Yup, the Kanto games."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**A/N: I'm soooo sorry for not updating sooner. I have just finished experiencing a new type of computer problem. I had typed about two and a half pages of this chapter and saved it. The next day I went to open Word, and it just wouldn't open. I waited forever for it to show up, but it just didn't. I tried it a bajillion more times, and the same thing resulted. It was like that for a couple weeks before I had my mom help me fix it.**

**Now it's up and running and chapters won't take months to update anymore! Yay! Please READ AND REVIEW, and thanks to all my reviewers!**


	6. You Already Know Him

**You Already Know Him**

It was like Sakura had predicted, they were all required to fight in the Kanto games. They weren't expected to win every battle and certainly not to win the nationals, unless the wanted to, it was supposed to be the big demonstration of the angels. They had been called back after the week and it was all explained. Some of them were surprised at the news, but Sakura wasn't affected at all.

She explained to them how she figured it out after Mr. Tayoma had asked her to. She merely said that all the managers were talking about fighting and improving their skills. The only major battles that were coming up were the Kanto games, so it couldn't have been anything else.

There was a lot of hustling around and making sure that everyone was ready, because the Kanto games started in three days. The press had started to pop up again once they caught a whiff that the six were participating the in games. Sakura had been going back to school for the past week and could see them crawling around the grounds of the campus. She had become indifferent to them, their behaviors falling into normalcy of her life. So for the most of it Sakura's life had returned to normal as most as it ever could.

There was only two days left until the Kanto games and currently Mr. Tayoma had Keito, tuning him up and making sure that all of his programs were running smoothly. Sakura, out of the entire group, was the most skilled and had been voted first to fight in the games. She had protested but in the end she had no other choice. She was meeting her manager after school to get some last minute training in and to come up with some new wind moves. The press was calling her the 'Wind Apprentice', remembering Ringo Seto and her angel Ranga who used the old style of wind moves.

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**Two Days Later**

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Sakura stood in the waiting room of the Angelic Layer stadium with the other five, glad they got their own place to wait without others bothering them. The others were looking nervous, but Sakura looked the same in her annoyed yet almost expressionless face. The opening ceremony had already passed and now Sakura was waiting for to be announced out on the floor, Keito looking thrilled on her shoulder.

Seconds later loud cheers erupted from the stadium as Sakura's opponent walked onto the floor. Mr. Tayoma had told her a million times on what to do, after her opponent's name was announced she would start to walk out and then she would be announced. She didn't hesitate and started to walk, the others watching her back, and the second she reached the door out into the bright lights she could hear the announcer screaming her name.

"The Wind Apprentice- Sakura Ohkawa!" The cheers matched, if not were greater, than her opponents. Sakura put on a small smile as to not look hateful like she felt. From the corner of her eye she could see Keito waving happily to the crowd. Already she could hear 'Kei-kuns!' and 'Sakura-chans!' sprout out from random places among the crowd.

She climbed into the seat and put the headset on, looking at her opponent and her angel. It was rather hard to see, and as hard as Sakura tried to look it was impossible for her. Having a little seeing problem things from her opponents distance and father were slightly out of focus.

"It's Deus Ai Matsuda and Angel Annetta against 'Wind Apprentice' Sakura Ohkawa and male Angel Keito!" The announcer screamed into his microphone, making Sakura's ears twitch, "Let's get this thing rolling and ANGEL ENTRRRRRRRRYYYY!!"

Ai wasted no time in starting throwing Annetta into the layer and yelling out her angel entry.

"Annetta! Confuse the enemy and cannon ball to our victory!" Sakura was frozen stiff. Over all of the chaos trying to make sure the angels were ready Sakura hadn't come up with an angel entry. Annetta landed in the layer and Sakura panicked, so confused on what to do. Should she just throw Keito in and look like a dweeb, but have a good angel entry for later? OR should she make up one now she wouldn't look silly, but be stuck with some stupid angel entry? Every eye was on her and she took a gulp, starting to throw in Keito.

"The winds of our destiny will break all our chains! Keito!" Sakura could hear herself yelling into the crowd. Keito flew into the layer and landed with a powerful thud. The tall, heavyweight, speed angel stood up straight and changed back into his cold personage. Already all of Keito's fangirls were screaming bloody murder, and Sakura wanted to make them all bloody.

She could properly see Annetta now, a pirate angel. She looked like something out of a kid's pirate book, candy cane type striped shirt with ripped shorts, multiple gold loop earrings accenting her curly brown hair and a sword nestled at her side. She even had the eye patch, matching bandana, and large brown pirate boots.

"Now ANGELIC FIGHT!!" The announcer screamed again. Annetta rushed forward just like the whole last week had. Everything had just flown by and had barely even given Sakura any time to soak any information in. Annetta was fast, faster than all of the six put together.

She was already close to Keito, pulling her arm back and releasing it into a furious punch. Keito dodged by squatting down and stuck his leg out in hopes to trip Annetta up, it didn't work. She tumbled over the outstretched leg, and quickly getting up delivered a solid kick to the back of Keito's head. He stumbled and fell forward, Annetta took the chance and tried to give another kick to his back.

In one graceful motion Keito swept his legs, knocked Annetta over, jumped up and while she was still falling sent a powerful wind punch to her stomach. The same move she used to finish the boy, but Annetta was too experienced to be knocked out by that.

Forcing herself up from the rim of the layer she went back into another charging fury, using what looked like every kick punch and tackle known to man. Keito had a hard time blocking, and an even harder time getting any attacks on Annetta. But then again, Sakura wasn't really all that driven about it. She was doing the least she could in order to make Keito not look like some wimp, even though she still despised Angelic Layer with every fiber of her being she wasn't about to make herself look like a fool.

Keito was finally able to get away from the mad attacker, and sent a couple slices of wind towards her. Ai couldn't see them so Annetta was being cut up for a minute before she could figure out what was happening. Annetta popped her sword out of her sheath and held it in front of her. Sakura didn't know what she was doing, you couldn't cut _wind_.

Sakura, a little angry now, sent a bigger slice of wind, and to her surprise as Annetta swung her sword and nothing seemed to happen to her.

"What?!" Sakura yelled into nowhere, amazed that her attack had missed. She tried sending another slice, and another, one more try, but Annetta continued to swing her sword perfectly and somehow deflect the attack. Sakura let out a tiny growl and tried to figure out how she was blocking.

Keito continued to attack the same way as Sakura watched closely, measuring the assumed range of the attack and where the wind would have hit. Ai seemed to be getting annoyed, and after dodging another wind attack charged swinging her sword and almost hitting Keito in the head. He used a kick as a counter attack, but Annetta was too fast for him. Her sword was just as dangerous as Keito's massive vortex, one hit of the cold blade and it was all over.

Sakura still had to figure out how she was deflecting all of Keito's wind attacks, or she would definitely lose. Keito took a step back and sent a ball of wind towards Annetta, this time in a ball and clearly visible. Annetta took a swing and led herself to her own downfall. With this Sakura was able to figure out how she was blocking, the wind hit the sword but didn't cut it, just changed its course of direction so it would miss its target. It was so simple Sakura was surprised she didn't figure it out sooner.

Sakura began to really fight back, and hard, she was being completely ruthless. Now that she knew how Annetta was blocking he was hitting her with perfect accuracy again and again. Ai was starting to sweat as she watched her angel's hit points steadily decreased. Annetta would try to hit with her sword, but Keito would dodge and get her back with a wind punch or kick.

The fight continued to lag on, Annetta getting weaker and Sakura getting even more bored. During a cartwheel a circle of wind hit Annetta so hard that her sword snapped into two pieces. In the process it also knocked her over and Keito delivered a powerful kick to her stomach, sending her hit points to just above zero. Sakura was just about to end it, but then she heard Ai yelling.

"Stop! Don't hit her! I give up! I'm done! You win!" A hushed silence fell over everybody, the announcer was quiet, Sakura was quiet, and Keito's foot stopped just in time before it hit her stomach again. Sakura glared at Ai, who was looking down in shame, her face red and her eyes swimming with tears.

"Oh wow, um ladies ad gentlemen Ai Matsuda had official drawn out of the competition. Because of her forfeit Sakura Ohkawa has moved up to the next round." The announcer said, getting his voice back. The screen flashed and then showed a close-up of Keito with the rainbow 'Winner' sign underneath. The eerie silence was broken with the crowd's cheers and whistles, louder than they had ever been.

Ai was already down on the ground and taking the torn-up Annetta, rubbing her eyes with the back of her sleeves. Sakura got out of the lift and Keito, back into his happy state, bounced onto her head. Ai was running away to the door and Sakura started to follow, when she reached the doorway Mr. Tayoma caught her shoulder and stopped her.

"Let her go, Ai has a knack for giving up and it's a miracle the crowd is still surprised at it. It's clear to see her heart isn't in it, or she would have given everything till the last moment. Just like you, you _wanted_ to win."

"You're so mental, I just can't stand losing, even in Angelic Layer." Sakura scoffed, shrugging his hand off her shoulder and walking back to the waiting room. Mr. Tayoma laughed and followed in suit.

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It was later in the day and none of the others were fighting till the afternoon so Mr. Tayoma was treating Sakura to lunch as a small victory prize. The next one to go was the little boy, and Sakura was thinking the whole time how he was going to lose. They got caught in traffic and were a little late getting back to the stadium, and quickly found out that the boy's match had just started.

Sakura wasn't that interested in watching, seeing as she already believed the boy was going to lose. She started to read magazine and from what she heard the boy was already down to half of his angel's hit points. It changed a minute later, the boy starting to fight back and her curiosity too great her head turned to the television displaying the match.

The boy was fighting back with everything he had, the other angel cowering and trying to get away. Sakura was dumbfounded and overall confused as the boy continued to dominate, his full of confidence, even more than when he had believe he was winning against Sakura.

She sweat-dropped as the last move went by, the boy's opponent flying out of the layer.

"Wow he won." She told herself, a crazy smile on her face, realizing she had just talked over the announcer. Looking back up at the screen she saw in the corner an adult with a blue-haired angel, smiling and cheering louder than anyone else around her.

The boy entered the room, his face flushed and looking excited. His manager was walking with him and smiling happily. Sakura ran over to him, and the boy looked up at her with a happy face.

"Good job." She told him half-heartedly.

"Thanks, it was all because of you. You inspired me!"

"What's your name?" Sakura asked, realizing she didn't know.

"My name?"

"Your name."

"Oh you didn't know? It's Cobey Miyoko."

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**A/N: There you have it! It one rhyming sentence you found out who the boy is! If you haven't read My Tennis Angel it probably won't make sense, so you have best go read it right now! Go! Shoo! It's a must-read! It's probably pretty obvious who the adult is if you've read MTA also, but don't spoil it for others pwease.**

**R&R!!!**


	7. The Wayward Vacation

**The Wayward Vacation**

Sakura had a few lazy days after her first battle, and now there was a pause at this point while so many people were taking vacations during the break. Only three of the six had gone on, Sakura, Cobey, and a girl named Kina. The other three came were still practicing and appearing at smaller tournaments, along with appearing at small press conferences while the other three were busy.

During the break all of the parents had set up a special treat for Sakura, Cobey, and Kina. It was a trip to America, they would be heading to Highland Beach at the New Jersey shore. Sakura and Kina hadn't been there before, but Cobey said he had visited the country a couple times with his family.

Sakura was really looking forward to this vacation, it was her chance to get away from everything that was bothering her. Well almost everything, Mr. Tayoma said they had to bring their angels which didn't bother anyone except Sakura.

"_Why can't I just leave him here with my parents?" Sakura asked him fiercely. _

"_Your supposed to take your angel everywhere with you, you're his Deus. Plus you could do well with trying harder to believe in your angel." Her manager replied._

They had been going on like that all day, until finally Sakura broken down once more and had gotten over it. The day before they left Mr. Tayoma popped up with a bunch of beach clothes for Keito including- a pair of swim trunks, Hawaii shirts with matching shorts and sandals. Sakura had buried them in the bottom of her suitcase, only going to touch them if she had to.

The next day she got on the plane, Sakura sitting next to the window and Kenichi next to her. Their parents had to work so Kenichi was coming along as her chaperone. Mine had made a big fuss about wanting to go and had almost gotten away with sneaking in the car, but now she was sitting at home grounded. The group was taking a private jet courtesy of Piffle Princess enterprise, and it was just as cutsey as the stores.

Ten minutes later after everything was ready to go the plane went down the runway and took off. Taking off was always Sakura's favorite part of flying, it was the way you felt when you went so sharp up that she liked so much.

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It seemed like her whole life had passed her by the plane trip took so long. It was fine for the first hour or so, but after it passed eight hours Sakura was ready to rip her hair out. Cobey, on the contrary, said he was ready to fly a couple more hours if they had too. Obviously he was used to flying for long hours at a time. He told Sakura his father had to go on business trips overseas and often took him with him. Their family seemed to be even richer than Sakura's, due to one of his sister's jobs along with his dad's.

Sakura wasn't sure what to expect of the new country, some of the things she had heard about America wasn't the best. Walking out of the international airport terminal her spirits lightened a bit, it wasn't nearly as bad as some of the things she had been told about. Of course most of them had been told by a weirdo in her class who only made up idiotic stories.

Mostly she was glad she could walk out of her house without being mobbed by people. The press was bearable now, but she still wasn't free to do a lot of the things she wanted to. She also had to act like a little perfect angel when in public for fear of earning back her violent girl title which Mr. Tayoma had finally been able to get rid of.

The group of Deus's and their chaperones were led by their managers to the baggage claim, and after ten long tedious minutes of waiting the suitcases started to drop from the chute. When Sakura's came Kenichi easily lifted hers off and then his, Sakura thanked him and then took her own. Kina missed hers as it came around so the group had to wait a minute before it came back.

Ten more minutes and Sakura was able to breathe her first breath of fresh air in ten hours, and it smelled like the ocean. They had an arranged van to take them to the rented condo near the beach and Sakura couldn't wait to see what it looked like. Kina and Sakura would share the larger room and Cobey would get the smaller room to himself, and the adults would be sharing the larger condo next to them.

Half an hour later they were finally situated in their rooms, all unpacked and ready to explore. They would be there for four days and Sakura was desperate to get everything out of this vacation that she would be able to. Changing into a black halter top dress with attached purple pleated skirt underneath with matching purple belt Sakura was ready to leave.

Mr. Tayoma was waiting outside the door for her wearing a pair of shorts and a Hawaii shirt with all the buttons open.

"Is that really what you're wearing?" Sakura asked, giving him a quizzical look. He smiled and held his hands open wide.

"But of course! I'm not going to go strolling around in a business suit! We're here to have fun, no work what-so-ever!" he smiled. Sakura crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"I doubt that." She muttered under her breath. Mr. Tayoma stared at her cheerfully for a second before taking her hand and pulling her towards the elevator. The others followed after Sakura's protests.

The boardwalk was right across from their condominium and soon Sakura had stopped complaining about her manager's clothes and stared at everything there. Every other shop was a place where you could get food- from salads and pizzas to fried Oreos and cheesecake. Placed between all the food places there were clothing shops, beach shops, arcades, bars, and everything else you could want.

Sakura and Kina went into all the different clothes shops, trying on all different sorts of clothes. Sakura loosened up a bit and started to smile and laugh with Kina as Cobey destroyed them in a video game for the tenth-billion time. They each got a henna tattoo on their ankle and went to the small roller coaster park on the boardwalk. They all went, including the managers, on the biggest one, but Sakura and Cobey were the only ones that went on the Gravitational. It was a ride where they strapped you into a seat in an orb and swung you around in a circular motion, the tallest point 80 feet in the air. The only part Sakura got nervous on was when the ride operator stopped them at the top for a couple minutes before letting them fly back down.

The group stopped for lunch before they started to walk back to the condominium to change. It was finally time to go swimming and with almost a bit of excitement Sakura changed into a violet two piece with the bottom having a little skirt. They showed their passes to get onto the beach and were soon spread out doing whatever they wanted. The only female manager was tanning on a towel along with Kina's mother, Cobey's manager was reading a book as he hid under the shade of the umbrella, and Mr. Tayoma was building a sandcastle with Kina and Kenichi.

Sakura and Cobey were the only ones out on the ocean, surfing with surfboards compliments of the condo's manager. It was a little crowded so they had to wait their turn before they could get a wave. Finally after a couple minutes of waiting it was there turn at last. She paddled where the waves were forming and waited until one started to swell. Sakura stood up on her board and started to ride along the wave with Cobey doing the same thing next to her on a different wave.

She heard cheering and clapping coming from the shore and the rest of their group, except for Cobey's manager, was cheering for them. Sakura rolled her eyes and got to the back of the queue as the wave rolled back under the ocean. Cobey came over next to her and laughed.

"Quite enthusiastic aren't they?" he joked, nodding back to the shore where the others had gone back to what they were doing before.

"Too enthusiastic. But your manager seems like-."

"A stiff?" Cobey cut her off with a smile on his face.

"Yeah."

"He's not that bad. He really scared me at first but he's actually nice, in his own way."

"I'll take your word for it." Sakura shrugged her shoulders with a smile. Cobey laughed and moved up in the line.

"Hey. Cobey?" Sakura asked, paddling up next to him.

"What's up?"

"How come no one except your manager came with you?"

"Oh, well my mom's visiting my eldest sister and my dad and second eldest sister were just too bust to come. So it was agreed my manager would be my chaperone."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Nope." He smiled, and then caught the look on Sakura's face.

"Hang on. My family's not quite what you're thinking it's like. My family's together a lot of the time and we spend most of our time together when we can. They kind of smother me a little actually." He joked. Sakura laughed and they moved up just a bit more.

Half an hour later Sakura got tired of surfing and was swimming with Kina as Mr. Tayoma and Kenichi left to get a snow cone and was taking a long time doing it so Kina had bored of waiting for him. The half-finished castle was now being slowly eaten away the breaking waves as the two girls splashed each other and hid under the water.

It felt like forever before Mr. Tayoma and Kenichi came back to the beach and Mr. Tayoma whispered something into the other manager's ears. They both nodded and started to pack up, Mr. Tayoma ran down to the edge of water and sand and called out to the girls.

"Sakura! Kina! It's time to go!" They stopped playing and started to walk out of the water with disappointed looks on their faces, "Where's Cobey?"

"You mean me?" Cobey asked, walking over with his board under his arm and shaking water out of his hair.

"Yes, we have to go now."

"Why? The beach isn't closed yet." Kina retorted, looking over at the large clock near the entrance.

"I know. But we need to rest, we have something planned for tomorrow. A surprise."

"Oooh what is it?" Kina questioned, suddenly excited. Mr. Tayoma shook his head and motioned for them to follow him. The three gathered up their stuff and everyone started to walk back towards their condo, the sun starting to move towards the horizon now.

Sakura woke up early the next morning and stood up from the lower bunk of the bunk-bed she was sharing with Kina. The clock on the VCR said it was 6:25am and too early to be up yet. But for some reason she just couldn't sleep, her manager's actions yesterday were beginning to make her a little suspicious. At lunch he had said that they were going to stay at the beach until it closed, and he and Kenichi had also taken forever to get their snow cones when the stand was only 100 feet away from where the rest of them were.

She sighed and went into the bathroom to take a shower, trying to get her thoughts straight as the steaming water calmed down her active mind. By the time she finished her shower, dried her hair, and changed into the clothes she had brought in with her Cobey and Kina were up. Kina had apparently been waiting for Sakura to get out and went into the bathroom, giving Sakura a smile as she passed by her. Cobey had taken one the night before and was watching television while he was munching on his cereal. His ninja angel, who was named Shinosuke, was sitting on his shoulder and watching the television with him.

Sakura looked at them, thinking of Keito who she knew was still resting her pillow. Her head was starting to droop a bit then a knock on the door came and Sakura perked back up and went to open it. It was Kenichi with her manager right behind him and wearing a grin that Sakura hadn't taken too fondly to, it was usually followed by news she didn't like. They walked in without her waiting for her to say they could and signaled for Cobey to come over where they were standing.

"Where's Kina?" Mr. Tayoma asked.

"She just went into take a shower about two minutes ago." Cobey said, pointing towards the bathroom door where they could hear the water running.

"That's bad timing, but I guess I can leave it to you two to tell her what we're going to do today." Sakura groaned and gently smacked her hand over her eyes while she shook her head back and forth.

"You didn't! Please tell me that's not the reason you two were gone so long…" she trailed off, hoping she was wrong. Mr. Tayoma chuckled sheepishly.

"Eh heh, well you're certainly insightful as ever Sakura."

"Well, isn't that what you recruited me for, my smarts?" she asked as she put her hand back down.

"I suppose so."

"What are you guys talking about?" Cobey asked, jumping into the conversation and looking puzzled.

"The reason we were gone so long, right. Uh well, it turns out you can meet a lot of interesting people down here. The man standing behind us in the line is a producer of a popular show around here, introducing new clothes and trends and that sort of stuff. Anyway he recognized me and wanted to know if you three and your angels would like to do the show taping today, we talked about it and I finally said yes."

"Just like that, considering we might not want to? This is supposed to be our break, a vacation!" Sakura said with a little venom in her voice. Kenichi, who was standing next to her, placed a hand on her shoulder and it seemed to calm her down a bit.

"I knew you might feel this way, but we're working on getting Angelic Layer more popular here in the U.S."

"But it was released here quite a few years ago wasn't it?" Cobey asked.

"Yes it was but it never really picked up the momentum that we had hoped. It was fine for a year or so but then it began to dwindle down in sales."

"So this is all just to make more sales, more money?" Sakura asked suddenly, and a little louder than she should have.

"W-what? I'm not quite sure what you mean." Mr. Tayoma responded quietly, a little surprised.

"You want it to rise in popularity, make more sales which in turn will bring in more money! It sounds like that's all you care about. You even said the reason the male angels were even made was just so you could keep Angelic Layer alive for a few more years, is that right? You never said you wanted to make the angels because you love the game, because you wanted to do something that will be challenging and fulfilling while making people happy. It just sounds like all you want to do is make sales and keep it alive so you're not out of a job!" She took a few deep breaths forcing herself to keep calm while her manager looked like he was struggling to find words. Then to her dismay he smiled widely and started to laugh.

"Ha ha, you can be quite amusing even when you don't mean to be! I'm sorry if that's the impression if you got, that's not what I meant when I said all that. I say things like that sometimes because, well, I am a businessman. I do love the angels though, along with the game and I don't want it to die just because I'll be out of a job. I don't know what I'd do without it." He then raised an eyebrow at her, "But Sakura, right then it seems like you cared about the angels right then, almost like you were defending them, almost like you like Angelic Lay-."

"No I don't!" Sakura interrupted with a loud yell. She turned on her heel and ran into her room, slamming the door and locking it behind her. Mr. Tayoma didn't seem to be fazed and shook his head with a smile while Kenichi rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the door with an slightly saddened look on his face.

Sakura jumped onto the bed making Keito fly into the air an inch or so. Sakura's head was hidden in her folded arms and it was a minute before she turned her head to look at her angel who was staring at her with a chipper curious look on his face. She stared at him for a minute more before she took his hat and gently tossed it across the room.

"Fetch." She mumbled and Keito happily jumped off the bed as if it were really a game. A knock came from the door and Sakura forced herself up and went over to it, unlocking it but pushing her shoulder against it to keep it closed.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's Kina, um, I need some clothes." Sakura opened the door and let her in. She had the white towel wrapped around her and looked as if she had been standing there for a minute, judging by the puddle of water on the floor, trying to decide if she could knock without getting yelled at.

"Sorry about that." She told her.

"It's fine." Kina responded with a smile as she went over to the dresser and started searching for some clothes. Meanwhile Keito jumped onto her back and waved his hat in her face.

"You're kidding me right?" she whispered. Keito smiled and waved the hat again. She took it and threw it further this time and Keito happily went after it once more as Sakura rolled her eyes.

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According to Sakura the time they had spent flying was nothing to how long the interview had lasted. She had finally come out of hiding and put on the best appearance she could while the cameras were rolling. The group was now walking into a local mall the day after and Sakura noticed they were quite a few eyes on them. She rushed up to her manager, tapping him on the back. He stopped walking and bent down so she could whisper in his ear.

"Why is everyone staring? You said the show wouldn't air until after we left, no one should know we're here."

"I'm aware I said that. It also seems like the company did not take to heart what I said to them about it." Sakura gave him a quizzical look and then he started to explain.

"I really didn't want this to turn out where you would be followed here too…"

"But?" Sakura folded her arms.

"Well I asked the company not to show any commercials of the show until the day after next, that's when we leave of course. I wanted you to enjoy you're last day or so of vacation. But it seems to have turned out that they did not listen and went ahead and made a commercial. I saw it last night, quite quick they made it I must say, and it looks to be a popular topic. Everyone's now aware that we're here and we'll probably see the same reaction we saw back home."

"Oh, that's wonderful. Just peachy keen!" she rolled her eyes and then started to walk back to the group that had went a while before they realized that they had lost two members. Sakura had only taken a few steps when she realized her manager wasn't following.

"Sakura, something just dropped out of your bag. It kind of looks like Keito's hat." He said, about to pick it up. Sakura hastily rushed back and snatched it off the floor before shutting it in her bag.

"It's a spare. His old one was getting tattered."

"I, I see." Mr. Tayoma gave her a look before heading in front of her back to the group. She waited a while before checking around to see he was a distance away and that nobody was looking before she lifted the flap on her bag.

"Hey you crazy angel, can't you keep that hat of yours on?" she asked Keito who smiled back at her, fixing his top hat back on his head.

"Sakura!" she heard Kenichi yell after her.

"Coming!" she called back, quickly closing the flap back down and running over to meet them. She couldn't see the eyes watching from behind the pillar.

An hour or so later they group was sitting down in the food court finishing their lunches. Sakura hadn't been that hungry and was leaning back in her chair, eyeing the people all around them who were still staring. So far that was the worst, the staring. No one had come up to them yet, but it was certainly starting to get annoying.

She was fixated the most on a group of girls not to far away from them. They seemed to be in a deep discussion, and were throwing furtive glances over towards her every few seconds. Sakura rolled her eyes and wished they would stop or at least ask whatever or do whatever they wanted to do.

Finally the youngest girl stood up, she looked to be the little sister of one of them, no more than six. She took slow steps over towards them and seemed to lose the little confidence that she had as the others saw someone was approaching. The girl stopped a few feet away from them with a camera in her hands.

"Um, uh, well, hi. Do you think, maybe…" she said weakly, her face turning red and unable to look at any of them.

"Would you like a picture?" Mr. Tayoma asked cheerfully, smiling down at the girl. She nodded and he waved towards Cobey, Kina, and Sakura. They moved close together. Cobey and Kina had openly carried their angels in but when asked Sakura said she rather wouldn't when she really did. Still her hand moved towards the clasp on her bag and she made sure it was tight. The girl, who looked happier, raised the camera up and waited until Sakura smiled before taking the picture.

"Thanks!" she smiled before running back off to her group who was giving her pats on the back. Sakura frowned slightly at the sight.

"Can't even get up the courage to ask for a picture themselves, have to make the little one do it."

"Not everyone has the iron nerve you have Miss Sakura." Mr. Tayoma teased. Sakura gave him a weak smile and stood up, announcing that she was going to the restroom. It was empty and no eyes were on her so she sighed deeply and leaned against the counter, opening her bag and letting Keito jump out. He looked ecstatic to be out of the bag and began to stretch a bit. Sakura watched him for a minute, a small smiled creeping up on her face. When she decided that she had been gone long enough for it to qualify she actually went to the bathroom she picked Keito up and was about to put him back in her bag when a large group of girls walked in the door and spotted her.

In a split second they were all around her, asking every sort of question and grabbing for her angel. She tried to hide him in her bag but they were grabbing her arms and begging. She yelled at them to let her go but they kept on persisting, getting louder by the second.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled over them, having enough. A warm hand slipped into hers and started to pull her through the crowd.

"Hey!" she yelled, but the girl just pulled her on. The girl had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, and looked back at Sakura and gave her an encouraging smile. Sakura stopped struggling and let the girl rush her out of the bathroom. Unfortunately the other girls were quick to notice and were soon rushing after them. The girl tugged on Sakura's hand and they began to run away from the group. Everyone in the food court soon had their eyes on them and Mr. Tayoma stood up quickly. Kenichi did the same thing as he saw what was going on, looking worried and panicked.

"The rest of you head back to the car." Mr. Tayoma instructed while he and Kenichi proceeded to follow after the group.

The girl urged Sakura faster and soon both the group and the two men were getting farther behind. They ran up the 'up' escalator and gained some distance. Suddenly they could hear shouts of the crowd following them, the mall guards that had been called catching up to the group. Still the girl led her down a darker, narrow hallway. It turned to the left and only after that did the girl let go of Sakura and they both slid down the wall, panting heavily.

"T-thanks." Sakura said between breaths for air, brushing wisps of hair out of her face.

"It's no problem, I'm Lily by the way." She introduced herself, holding out her hand. Sakura took it and shook it.

"I'm Sakura."

"I figured that out when I saw your angel last night." Lily smiled.

"That stupid commercial huh?"

"Not too fond of it I assume?"

"Not a bit." Sakura replied, shaking her head. At this point Keito popped his head out of the bag, looking flustered. Sakura took him out and let Lily hold him.

"So this is Keito?"

"Yup." Sakura replied, fixing her hair again. There were a few moments of silence as Lily and Keito bonded and Sakura stared at the ceiling.

"I wish I could have one, just a normal angel at least." Lily sighed, looking sad as she stared at Keito.

"Are you not allowed to have one?" Sakura asked, curious.

"No. My mom thinks such childish things are beneath me."

"That's kind of sad to hear."

"Yeah, all I can do is watch it on television. I've seen you a few times."

Sakura was about to respond when she heard someone call her name, she recognized the voice as her brother's.

"I guess I should take him back now." Sakura said, Keito jumped back into her hands and she placed him into her bag. She gave Lily a warm smile and stood up, Lily stood up too and returned her smile. Sakura started to walk away when Lily called her back.

"Wait, you dropped his hat!" she said, picking it off the ground.

"Thanks, its always falling off." Sakura reached out to take it back.

"I'll put it on." Lily winked, reaching into the bag to put Keito's hat on his head. Kenichi called again, his voice growing fainter as he was walking away from where they were.

"We should go." Lily said, placing her hands behind her back.

"Yeah, we should." Sakura replied, walking back around the corner and rushing to the main hallway with Lily following.

"Kenichi!" Sakura called after her brother's back. He wheeled around and ran over to her, looking exhausted and panting hard.

"T-there you are! Couldn't figure out where you went…" his face became even more worried as he thought of what would happen if she got lost.

"I'm sorry. Lily here helped me get away and we were hiding in that hallway back there." She said, pointing over towards it. Lily was also walking over to them as she adjusted her bag straps.

"Someone say my name?" she asked in a joking manner, patting Sakura on the back.

"Thanks for helping put my sister." Kenichi smiled weakly at her.

"It's fine, really." Lily replied, waving her hand sheepishly. Then her phone started to ring and she looked at the number.

"Oh drat, it's my mom! I was supposed to be home ten minutes ago, I have to leave!" she said in a worried voice. She started to run away and turned back for a brief moment to wave before heading off again.

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Sakura walked back into her room sometime after the incident. She placed her bag on the bed and sat down next to it before she opened the clasp and lifted open the top.

"Okay Keito you can-." She stopped dead. Her hand rummaged through the bag, the only part of her angel she could find was his hat. Sakura became even more frantic as she dumped everything onto the bed in hopes that Keito would fall out too.

"Hey, Kina? Have you seen Keito?" she asked as her room partner walked in. Kina stopped and looked at her, a little confused and a little worried.

"Not since we left earlier. Can't you find him?" she asked. Sakura shook her head.

"Well he has to be around here somewhere." Kina said before she started to look around. Sakura helped too, but she didn't put as much effort into it as she should've.

"He's not here! Where could he be?" Kina asked no one, in a complete panic now, "We have to go and say something!"

At that she flew out of the room and was already talking to the managers who had met in the kitchen by the time she walked out of the room. Sakura watched as their expressions became shocked and a bit angry. A knock came from the door and Sakura answered it as everyone was too preoccupied with the current situation. Kenichi appeared from behind the door, holding multiple bags and looking to see what was going on.

"I brought some stuff that Mr. Tayoma called and asked for, but what's happening here?"

"Um, well, we have a situation." Sakura told him nervously.

"Sakura!" her manager yelled for her to come. She glanced over her shoulder nervously before walking in with Kenichi. She stood in front of her manager, barely able to look him in the eye. His expression wasn't angry, but she almost wished it was.

"He's really gone?" he asked as he folded his arms. Sakura nodded slowly and looked at the floor.

"That doesn't make sense! His programming shouldn't have let him leave the room unless he's with you! I even had had extra protection on these rooms so nobody would be able to annoy us. I mean, he'd have to be out of-." He stopped talking and looked at Sakura who dared to look up. His brain was making the connection and Sakura knew it.

"You _did _have him at the mall with you!" he said loudly, giving her a shocked and angry look. She nodded again, her face hidden by her hair.

"So now he's either running around there or someone took him! That's just great! What are we going to we do-." Sakura cut him off one more time.

"Lily." She said softly.

"W-what?!" Mr. Tayoma asked, looking vivid.

"Lily." She said louder, "She was the last one with me before he went missing, she must have taken him. I dropped his hat after I put him back in my bag. She insisted on putting the hat on her self and then after that she had her hands behind her back until I was out of sight, then it looked like she had put something in her bag. She must've put him in there and I was too stupid to notice! So much for my smarts."

"Don't be so hard, but are you sure that's how it went?" Mr. Tayoma asked, looking much calmer now.

"Yes, I'm positive." She replied confidently.

"Great, now at least we have something to go off of. I'll call the police and we can see if we can find this girl."

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"She had brown curly hair and hazel eyes, I'd say she's about my height too." Sakura told a policeman only fifteen minutes later. He had been scribbling down notes until she had gotten to the description. He glanced at Sakura before taking out a picture and showing it to her.

"This the girl?" Sakura took the picture and her eyes grew just a bit bigger.

"Yes, except her hair is a bit longer now. How did?" She said, letting the question ask itself.

"We've had many cases with her and stolen angels. It's been awhile since the last one, but it looks like she's starting it all up again." The policeman finished, taking back his picture and making more notes.

"So you'll be able to get him back soon?" Mr. Tayoma asked.

"Of course, within a few hours if we're lucky. I must say she's lost her touch over the years, making it so easy for us to find her. We've tried everything to try and get her back on a good path, but it doesn't seem to be working. Collects the angels as trophies you know, a bit crazy in the head. But anyway I just need to get a permit to go into her house to get it. We should have this 'Keito' back by tomorrow morning. Now if you'll excuse me…" he trailed off, packing up his things to leave. It was only after he left and they could the sirens on his car fade away did Sakura sigh and loosen up.

"I-I think I going to go to bed now, you can just wake me up when they bring Keito back." Sakura said to everyone as she walked over to the bedroom.

"You're not going to wait up?" Kina asked, looking over at the clock. Sakura stopped with her hand on the border of the door and turned to look at her.

"Does it matter either way? He's going to come back in the morning whether I wait up or not." She said as she closed the door behind her. There was silence in the room before Cobey dared to speak up.

"Does she even care?" he questioned a little nervously. Slowly every eyes turned to Kenichi who started to grow uneasy.

"In her own way." He said quietly.

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_A knock sounded out and she came to the door, almost expecting who was behind the it. It came as no surprise that when she opened it that she came face to face with the same police officer that had come to her parent's door so many times before. _

"_Hey there Bradley!" Lily said almost cheerfully._

"_Miss Tokins, even if we are related, you might want to show some respect as you are in a bad situation. Before we go into the details that I'm sure you are familiar with, please bring him here." Brad said, pulling out his notebook and looking down at her._

"_Sure, just a minute." Lily replied just as cheerfully as if nothing had happened. She appeared a minute later with Keito riding on her shoulder looking undamaged and happy. _

"_Here ya go!" she smiled handing the angel over to her cousin. _

"_Right. Officer Mitchells is going to stay here until I get back Miss Tokins. I can't get you off the hook this time, this time it's for real." He said taking the angel. Lily laughed and smiled._

"_That's fine, anything was worth it just to get to spend a few hours with him. He's quite interesting, so is the girl. I like her." Before Brad could respond the other officer came in and he gave Lily one last look before he headed out the door to bring Keito back to Sakura._

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Contrary to what Kina must've believed when she came in the room, Sakura hadn't been sleeping. Even as the hours passed by it never came upon her, she could only fake it when her brother and her manager came in to check on her at random intervals. She knew that her last comment wasn't one of the best things to say in front of them, but it was the only thing to say in order to cover it all up. The only person who knew would be her brother, he went through the same thing, he had just been stronger.

After an endless night the sun from the window finally fell across her face and she could hear the others starting to get up and move around as they waited for the police officer to come back. It was only after Kina got up and left that she dared to shift in order to face the room. After a few more minutes of thinking she finally got up and got dressed in a somber mood that she knew she would have to cover when she left the room. Just as she put on her brown hat she could faintly hear the doorbell ring and she knew that the police officer had returned with her angel.

Sakura walked quietly out into the kitchen and exchanged quick smiles with the others waiting while Mr. Tayoma opened the door and swapped a few words before the door closed and Mr. Tayoma came back with Keito in his hands and both were looking euphoric. The second Keito caught a glimpse of Sakura he happily jumped onto her shoulder and gave her head a pat.

"Hey there." She said, doing her best not to smile and pulling it off. She took his hat that she had been holding in his hand and placed it on her head. He gave her a thumbs up and for a brief second a smile slipped through her monotone gaze. It was then she realized that everyone was looking at her, Mr. Tayoma with a victorious smirk on his face.

"Urgh, what are you looking at?!" she said defensively.

"Nothing. Nothing." Mr. Tayoma replied before he and the rest of them started to laugh. Sakura dropped her death gaze, smiled a bit, and looked at Keito who was silently laughing along with the rest of them.

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**A/N: Not exactly sure what to say except, sorry? I know it's been quite a while since I last updated the story, I kinda lost my writing mojo. Now I'm back into the swing of things and am going to be updating a lot sooner. The next chapter though might be enough difficult though. I had written all the chapters in an outline and lost the papers I had it on. It had been a while since I looked at it so I don't remember what comes after this. It shouldn't be too long, I know it's in my room somewhere, I just have to figure out where I put it while I was cleaning my room. So yeah, please be just a bit more patient and wait. **

**RandR too!**


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